NOAA: Hottest July on Record Globally

Greetings Climate Matters Meteorologists!

NOAA released its monthly global temperature analysis for July 2016 this morning. In addition to being the hottest July on record, it was the hottest of any month since its record keeping began in 1880. This is the 15th consecutive month in which the globe was record warm, which is the longest such streak since NOAA record keeping began.

Some additional statistics:

• The July 2016 combined average temperature over global land and ocean surfaces was 1.57°F (0.87°C) above the 20th century average.

• July 2016 marks the 40th consecutive July with combined land and ocean temperatures above the 20th century average.

• July 2016 was the 379th consecutive month with temperatures above the 20th century average.

• The highest temperature during July 2016 was recorded in Mitribah, Kuwait when temperatures soared to 126.5°F (52.5°C) on July 22. If this value is verified by the World Meteorological Organization, it would be the highest temperature ever recorded in the Eastern Hemisphere.

Global year-to-date temperatures through July:

• The temperature across global land and ocean surfaces was 1.85°F (1.03°C) above the 20th century average of 56.9°F (13.8°C), highest since record keeping began in 1880.

• Every continent on Earth had one of its three warmest January–July periods, with North America, Asia, and Oceania each having its highest January–July average temperature since continental records began in 1910.

The NOAA analysis reaches the same conclusion as analyses from NASA and the Japanese Meteorological Agency, both also indicating that this past July was the hottest month on record globally.

As a reminder, the NOAA anomalies are calculated from a baseline of a 20th century average. To better represent how much the temperature has changed since the early industrial area, we have a combined the NOAA and NASA global temperature data and adjusted them to a baseline of 1881-1910. This is reflected in the graphic below:

Our second graphic illustrates the average global temperature for all years in the NASA record. Each line represents the yearly temperature anomaly, broken down by each month of the year, and measured against as 1980-2015 baseline. July 2016 is at the peak of the top curve on the graphic.